Thursday, November 24, 2011

Double the thankfulness this year!

The short story: I'm pregnant again. And it's twins!

The long story: In September, Greg and I began another round of IVF. This time my protocol was changed, probably because the doctors thought my eggs were getting old as they gave me a test for ovarian reserve. That test came back fine, but nevertheless, they decided for a ganirelic cycle, which meant a month of birth control and other oral medications, but no shots, followed by a month of a crazy amount of shots.

By retrieval day, my cycle didn't appear any different than the two previous ones. I had a modest amount of eggs at each of my monitoring appointments, and the surgeon predicted less than 19 eggs, which was how many we got in our second cycle (Claire). Boy was I surprised when I woke up and heard the number "31." I was so loopy and asked Greg the whole way home if they had really said "31." He confirmed probably about 15 times before telling me to quit asking.

On transfer day, 5 days later, we had a few embryos to choose from. Always you want to put the best one in so you don't risk freezing and thawing to your best shot at pregnancy. Of the embryos, we had two A's. We've never gotten A's before and after talking with 3 nurses, the embryologist and the doctor, we finally decided to throw both of them in and see what happened.

On the day of my first beta (blood draw for pregnancy) nine days after transfer, my number was 479. Whoa! With Claire my beta # was about 170, and the pregnancy before that was 90. (Anything over 50 is considered positive for pregnancy). So, at that point we were fairly certain both embryos had implanted. That was a Friday. With betas, it's important that the number doubles every 48 hours. That signifies the pregnancy is progressing like it should. So, when I went back on Monday, we expected the number to have tripled over the weekend. It did not. Just shy at 1182. Immediate worry and panic ensued even though I was told that I wasn't in the "danger" category. Two days later was my 3rd beta, and once the number is over 1000, it doesn't necessarily follow the doubling rule. We were hoping for about 2200, and ended up with 2532!! Instant relief....at least for a few days until the ultrasound.

Last Wednesday, we learned that we had two good heartbeats and both babies are measuring at 6weeks 2days, the exact same that Claire measured at this point.

On Saturday, I started spotting, so we went back to the doctor on Sunday. We learned that both babies are still doing well, but there's a place where the placenta attaches to the uterus that is bleeding. So, I'm on bedrest until the bleeding stops and modified bedrest until my next ultrasound on December 5. My doctor has jury duty next week, and I really think the greater civic duty would be to let him give me an ultrasound this Wednesday instead of waiting another torturous 5 days. But, that's not what the state of Tennessee thinks, so I have to wait. In the meantime, I wouldn't mind if a prayer (or two, or twenty) were said on behalf of our babies.

It's a ton of trouble for us to get pregnant, but that hasn't stopped us. Really, I can't imagine it any other way! Plus, I won't have to answer any embarrassing "How did you get pregnant?" questions from my kiddos later on..... We're just beyond excited and anxious to welcome these two precious souls into our home. I'm due July 7, but full-term for twins is June 9, so that's the day I'm counting down to.

62 comments:

Congratulations April! I'm so happy for you and Greg! I remember reading your journey from the time you started sharing with regards to getting pregnant. I wish you all the best and will be sure to send up prayers on a regular basis for you and your family.

sending along lots of love for the bedrest - i had something similar w/ alex, a subsomethingorother hemmorhage where the placenta pulled away from the uterus wall. i had a terrifying weekend of bleeding and a couple of weeks of bedrest and the rest of the pregnancy was back to normal. hoping you have a similar story. =)

so very excited for you both April. But I just read that last bit so I will be praying for you and they. Take care of you. and don't mind the bed rest too badly, after about 8 months, you won't be getting much of that, LOL

Wow how exciting. I knew you were trying but didn't know you had succeded in such a wonderful way. We certainly will pray for you and those babies. Can't wait to find out the sex but it really doesn't matter. Just healthy babies. Love you and stay in bed and take care of them.

Congratulations! And hang in there. I did IVF, had lots of spotting and a torn placenta. Still got a healthy baby boy out of it (we never got any "A" embrios, and we never had two implant). I know it is really a "head trip" to have good and bad news constantly bombarding you. I will pray for peace in your mind, and healthy babies in your womb!

Huge congrats April! Wow!! So neat! I can't believe it's twins!!!! So so happy for you and Greg!!! I hope that the bleeding stops! Let us know how it goes tomorrow at your ultrasound. Sending prayers your way!! And again, so happy for you!!!

Congratulations!! As someone who has gone through IVF unsuccessfully, I'm absolutely thrilled for anyone who gets pregnant!! Hang in there with the bedrest and I'll be sending positive thoughts your way. :)

Oh my gosh. Where have I been? I am SO happy for you both. What a blessing. Please accept my apologies for the delayed congrats. I've been a bit MIA this fall. I hope you're doing well and feeling great. Take care of yourself, cute mama!